Building block or tile construction



Oct. 2, 1928.

H. D. FOSTER I BU'ILDING BLOCK 0R TILE CONSTRUCTION Filed June 14, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct.'2, 1928.

H. D. FOSTER BUILDING BLOCK OR TILE CONSTRUCTION Filed June 14, 1926 2 Sfieets-Sheet 2 Patented Get, 2, 1928.

pairs BUILDING BLOCK on was consrnncrron.

This invention relates to improvements in unit blocks or tiles for building construction, and more particularly bears upon the shapes of such units for erecting load bearing walls,

or partitions which are to be used for fire, party or division walls and exterior walls, in that the design of the uni-t makes possible a more'fire-resistant and moisture-proof wall than has heretofore been attained.

It has heretofore been proposed to prepare such units in various forms and to-assemble them in various.manners,-whereby walls are produced for buildings. It has been custom-- ary to make tiles by an extrusion process, the material for the tile being contained in a machine hopper from which it is forced through a die having cores therein. These dies and cores are so regulated and arranged in shape and dimensions that a long continuous tube is produced which is cut off to predetermined lengths to form the green tile which is thereafter dried and baked or burned to be rend ered stable in shape and to impart to it the necessary characteristics of strength for use.

It is customary in the trade to refer to the sizes of the tile which are tobe exposed to the outsideand inside of a wall in straight run work as the face shells or .outer shells. The members connecting the ends of these face shells are referred to as cross shells. The members in the interior of the tile which connect and brace these members and form individual air chambers in the tile are called webs,

and may extend between the face shells (cross webs) or parallel to the face shells (longi tudinal webs). I

It is necessary to have the webs as thin as possible, so that the drying and baking may occur quickly andto reduce the Vweightand quantity of materialwhile obtaining the highest possible efficiency of the material used in the wall.

Such units have heretofore been proposed with apertures of various sizes and arranged in various relations to each other to produce a structure having one or more rows of aperturcs extending therethrongh. It is customary in assembling such units to form a wall to a lay them with the cells either horizontal or vertical and in general communication with the corresponding cells of the adjacent units Mortar is placed upon the upper surface of each unit along the ends ofthe face shells and on the cross shells and web's: mortar is likewise placed onthe ends or outer faces of the 'of at least one of the air chambers.

Application filed June 14/1926. Serial No. 115,840.

cross shells, so that mortar joints join the unit x T reaten v with the adjacent units-on all sides of it, For

the vertical joint, when the cells are arranged vertically, only narrow strips of mortar were placed in prolongation .of the outer faces or shells, while when the unit was laid with the cells horizontal, a full bed of mortar was placed on the tile, thus causingtransmission V p of the load of the superimposed wall and superstructure from tile to tile'through this mortar joint and upon the cross shell, so that the latter oftentimes was-ruptured, and for the vertical joint with the shells horizontal the mortar was placed only in prolongation of the outer faces or shells with no attempt to place mortar on the web at the center of the wall. The air eh ambers were therefore never, I

sealed one from another.

Units heretofore'designed have usually had a single thin web at the center which was too narrow to support the mortar to form a'seal:

the air chambers separating" adjacent central webs were so wide that the mortar fell through and was notheld 1n position to establish the seal. I v

According to the present invention, a shape of unit is provided in which two continuous air chambers, separatedfrom each other and when assembled in the wall'maintained independently sealed fromeach other both in the horizontal and vertical joint and from which the atmosphere is excluded, and fur thermore theinn'er webs of the unit are so allocated that'a joist may have morejthan one bearing upon the unit, whereby it will be steady and held in invariable position, and does not interrupt the continuity of the seal way, a wall construction is provided which is better adapted as a heat insulator than prior Walls, Inasmuch as a plurallty of separate air In this chambers are assured, and furthermore in the" event of a confiagratlon at least one full and sealed air chamberre'mains to prevent the p'assage'of flame and heat through the wall,; even in the event of a total destruction of the part of the wall upon which the joists aresup:

A further feature is the provision of r a block or tile in which the cross shellsare re lieved. of transverse load by reason of the mortar joints, moreparticularly when the block or tile is placed with its air chambers horizontal.

While the foregoingstatementshave rel" ferred more particularly to, clay units, yet it will be understood that the unit maybe fashioned of any other material with which, for reasons of lightness or economy, it is essential't-hat the shells and webs be made asthin as possible; I In the drawings are represented two iorm's of theunit, and two methods of assembling such units in walls, but it will be understood that these are 'merely by way of illustratlon and not intended as the sole examples of forms in which the present invention may be emtheir-individual air chambers in vertical posi- 'tion.

'Fi 3 is a similar pers ective view of sim- 'ilar units employed in wall construction with thea'ir chambers disposed in a horizontal position. 1

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a modified form of the unit.

In these drawings, in Fig. 1 the preferred form of the unit is represented as having the two external faces or shells 10 and 11 which are connected by a series ofinner transverse webs 12'and the crossshells 13. It will be understood that the outer members 10 and 11 are usually of greater thickness than the webs and cross shells, as is now customary in the art. A peculiarity of the present unit is the provision of two inner webs 1 1 which are in substantial parallelism with the face members 10 and 11 and are of approximately the same-thickness as the cross websand shells, 12 and 13 these inner longitudinal web members 14 are separated from each other by the narrow apertures 15. and are separated from the face members or shells 10 and 11 by the wider apertures or air chambers 16. In the style of unit illustrated, which maybe of the customary dimensions of 12 inches square for the facelmembers 10 and 11, and a thickness between. the outer faces of the face members of eight inches. three rows of apertures are provided. but it will be understood that the invention is not limited to any specific number of such rows in the longitudinal direction of the'tile or in the thickness of the unit.

stantial alinement with thelongitudinal'webs The distance between the longitudinal webs 1 1, 1.0 the width of. the apertures 15, is such that the mortar, in its usualconsistency, is

held by adherence against the; walls and by itsinternal coherence. in a proper position to form a closed seal between the walls 1 10f the abutting units.

' On-the endsof'the unit, the face members 10 and 11 extend beyond the cross shells 13 to provide the edge flanges 17. Intermediate the length of the cross shells 13 and in sub in the position shown in Fig. 1 and have a channel 19 between them to receive mortar when assembled 1n a wall.

The method of employing such units is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. In Fig. 2, the air chambers 16 are arranged in a vertical posi-' tion, and as the units are assembled in the wall the horizontallines of mortar 20, 20 are placed upon the ends of the shells or face members 10 and 11 to form the usual mortar joints for the inside and outside of the wall. In addition to this, a line of mortar is placed upon the longitudinal webs 14, 14 as represented at 21, which'acts in conjunction with the longitudinal web members 14, 14 of. the superimposedunit to form a continuous seal between the two rows. of air chambers 16, so that there are'three separate mortar joints formed in the thickness of the. wall. The presence of the apertures 15 permits the. mortar to enter slightly into the depth of the unit so that the massv of mortar is prevented from falling off from the edges of the'webs 14;

will be noted that mortar joints are not formed onthe cross webs and shells 12 and 13 but interruptions occur so that no con In placing the units, likewise, mortar is placed in. the customary manner upon the edge flanges 17, to form sealing oints with the abutting unit of the same course, and in addition thereto mortar is placed in they groove 19 and upon the ribs 18. The keying of the mortar 1n the groove ,19 prevents 1t from being discharged'or sealed off from. the

narrow ribs 18 while being placed in position 1n the wall. It Wlll thus be seen that there are likewise provided three lines of mortar joints in the wall at each vertical joint, which are designated as 22, 22 a-11d23 in Fig. 2;

A joist such as J in} 2 may be seated upon any course of the ur-ts, and the course next above the course chosen as a support is Ill) formed by the usual units in the usual way until the point ofthe joist is reached. at which point a unit 15 employed which has been broken. in h alf longitudinally on the por- 1 tions of the cross webs and shells 12 and 13 extending betwcenthe longitudinal webs 1 1- to Iorm the apertures 15.

of the wall opposite that at which the joist J is received. The joist J enters the wall for substantially half its thickness and receives a around the joist is filled until a solidwall 7 One row ofv the air. chambers 161s therefore left intact, at the side solid contact through the mortar between the obtained. As customary, the air chambers at the inner side of the wall in the course above and below the joint course may be filled up With mortar to seal the wall, and prevent any passage of air into the air chamber around the joists.

The joist .F is shown with a beveled end, the intersection of the bevel with the top of the joist occurring substantially at the faces 10 of the units.

In the event of a fire occurring on the inner or near side of the wall represented in Fig. 2,

in which the portions of the joists J supporing the floor are consumed, the oists may fall in and the bevel cuts will prevent any raising or cracking of the superimposed wall: the remaining row of air chambers 16 will prevent asubstantial passage of heat through the wall, so that the exterior of the wall will remain cool and will not be damaged by the throwing of a stream-of water thereupon. At the same time, while the throwing of water upon the heated interior face of the wall might on one occasion result in scaling, as is known today, this scalin' will merely involve the separation of portions of the face in mbers 10 on the inner side of thewall, with the exposure of the air chamber 16 at this face of the wall, but Without opening the air chamber 16 at the other side of the wall, since the central 21, 23 remain unimpaired; usually not more than a small portion of the air chambers 15 intermediate the same are opened. It will be noted that the air chambers 15 of the individual units are sealed at top and bottom in the course of the construction of the wall, so that there is very little opportunity for heat to pass through them even when the inner face members 10 have been sealed off as inclicated above. 1

The construction of wall shown in Fig. 3 is very similar, except that the units are respectively arranged in a position in which their air chambers are horizontal. It. will particularly be noted in regard to this figure that the three lines of mortar occur respectively above the thickened face members or shells 10 and 11, and above the doubled longitudinal webs '14, and that the gaps between the mortar joints 20 and 21 will prevent a weak cross shells 18 of the unit. The entire load of the wall is carried in the line ofthe mortar joints and upon the longitudinal weband face members which extend the full length of the unit, so that there is no tendency to crack the cross shells by transverse loads thereon. A similar seal is effected by the ver} joys the same advantages of safety against entire disruption in the event of a fire. At least one row of air chambers is always preserved even though therow adj acentthe com bustible matter may be'entirely open by scal ing of the face shells on that side, and it is usual that very few of the air chambers 15 are open. 7 It will be noted that'withthisconstruction also the-air chambersare 1ndividually sealed for the individual units. It is;

preferable to seal the air chambers adjacent the joist so thateven if the joist be removed, the atmosphere has no access into the inter: rupted series of air chambers} In the modified form of the unit shown in 4, the air chambers 16 are provided and are separated at the middleof the unit by two longitudinal webs 1 f which converge toward the center of the tile and there form a common point of intersection with the Web Bil member 12. 'Although the present illustraintermediate apertures 15 between webs 14 and cross'shells 13 are triangular in section and serve for the same purpose as in- Fig. 1. The relative sizes of the parts are such that a joist is supported upon a portion of a web le as well as upon the shell or face member 10. The mortar which is applied upon the longitudinal web members 14 is supported as with the first example, and at the thinnest portion, the center, it is likewise supported by the cross web 12. In case of a fire, the mortar joint will prevent the passage of fire into the air chamber 16 While the invention hasbeen described in connection with a standard unit and "a modified form of unit intended for partition use, it will be understood that it is not limited thereto, but units with any size of face and, any thickness of wall, so that any number of air chambers maybe employed in conjunction with any number. and arrangement of successive longitudinal and'cross webs.

It is apparentthat the invention is not limited'to the specific employment set forth by way of illustration, but that it maybe modifiedwithin the scope oft-he appended claims. V

I claim V 1. In a hollow wall, a plurality of integral hollow units each having mortar-supporting face shells and a plurality of cross and longitudinal shells and webs, said cross and longitudinal shells and webs being individually incompetentto sustaln mortar, two of said longitudinal webs being arranged close to gether whereby to sustain mortar, said units also having end pro ections on said cross.

shells in the line of said face shells and longitudinal webs whereby to support spaced mortar joints, and spaced mortar joints onv said face she'llsand juxtaposed longitudinal webs and on said end pro ections to connect said units, whereby at least two independ.

ent-ly sealed and separate air chambers ar formed in the wall intermediate its faces.

' 2. In a hollow wall, a plurality of integral hollow units each having face'shells and a plurality of internal longitudinal webs and connecting cross shells, and a plurality of spaced mortar oints on said face shells and longitudinal webs to connect said units, certain of said units being cut away through one faceshell andone longitudinal web whereby to present a support for a oist member upon the corresponding face shell and longitudinal for the external mortar joints, a plurality of thin longitudinal webs located between and substantmlly parallel to said face shells, said webs being spaced from said shells and located close one to another so that they cansustain mortar for an internal longitudinal mortar oint lndependent of said external joints, thin cross-shells connecting and supporting saidface shells zind'longitudinal webs with respect to each other, wide marginal projecting flanges on the exterior of the cross-shells in the planes of the face shells to support mortar for the external mortar joints, and intermediate ribs on the exterior of said cross-shells opposite the unctions with the longitudinal webs to support mortar for the internal longitudinal mortar joint.

ln ahollow wall a plurality of integral units arranged in the wall to form a, pluity of successive air chambers between the between the face shells,'e2:ternal mortar joints in the planes of said face shells to connect units and close said air chambers to'the exterior of the wall, and aninternal mortar in the plane of said longitudinal webs" and independent of said external joints to said cross shells being so thin that no mortar face of the wall and having face and cross shells and longitudinal websparall'el to and separate said chambers froin'one another,

joints can be formed thereon to permit" seepage of moisture between the faces of the walls, said cross shells having external projections thereon in the planes of said face shells and longitudinal webs to receive and bei spaced apart so that no mortar body can remain to transmit such loads directly between the cross shells.

in testimony whereof, I atlix my signature.

HARRY FOSTER.

transmit loads from one unit to the next and 

